S. Korea's mobile ad market nearly doubles in 2013

The local market for mobile advertisement nearly doubled on-year in 2013, a government report showed Tuesday, amid soaring number of smartphone users in the country.

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the size of South Korea's mobile advert market was estimated at 416 billion won ($392 million) last year, a leap from the 215.9 billion won in 2012.

Last year's figure accounted for 4 percent of the entire advertisement market in the country, a twofold growth from 2 percent tallied a year earlier.

The biggest market was in display ads, including banners or texts on webpages and mobile applications on portable devices, which came to 200 billion won in 2013. It was trailed by search-based adverts with 157.4 billion won.

This is the first time for the ministry to track data on different formats of mobile advertisement.

For 2014, the ministry said the local market for mobile advertisements is expected to reach 619 billion won, with display ads taking up 294 billion won and search-based adverts grasping 248 billion won.

A ministry survey indicated that people were becoming more receptive toward mobile ads. A 2013 poll of 2,000 users aged between 15 and 63 showed 50.6 percent were not pleased with them, lower than 59.7 percent in 2012.

Of those who were critical of the advert format, 33.6 percent disapproved of the contents of advertisement, while 29.1 percent cited interferences in using applications. (Yonhap)